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Lot's of features in a small package
03/11/2014

Pros: The only Mini-ITX motherboard I could find that had dual NIC's and six 6Gb/s SATA ports. I was looking for a mini-itx motherboard to build a compact, power efficient Hyper-v server for home. I compared every mini-itx motherboard on Newegg and this one had everything I needed; Drivers for Windows Server 2012 R2, dual gigabit NIC's and 6 SATA ports. I could've bought a cheaper desktop motherboard, used add-in cards to get the extra LAN or SATA ports and hacked the drivers for Server 2012 but using Intel's onboard generally offers better performance and effiency compared to 3rd party chipsets. I'm using it with 16GB of Kingston Hyper-X RAM, a Core i5 4570S and a 120GB SSD in a CHENBRO SR30169T2-250 mini-itx case. Idle power consumption is at 29 watts. With 10 TB of disk space (2 x 4TB, 1 x 2TB drives) idle power is 42 watts. I compared this to a GIGABYTE GA-H87N mini-itx desktop motherboard with the same components and the ASRock consumes 15 fewer watts at idle.

Cons: Latest 1.80 BIOS caused CPU and System fans to run at full speed all of the time. I was advised by ASRock support to update the BMC firmware in order to fix fan speed issue. Although it took them 24 hours to respond they were very helpful in addressing the issue.

Other Thoughts: This motherboard is expensive compared to some other mini-itx boards but if you're looking to build a server it's cost can be justified because it's more power effient and offers more features.

Very nice ITX case for Server / NAS
03/11/2014

Pros: One of the few mini-itx cases in this size that can hold 6 hard drives and the only one with hot-swappable drive bays. I needed a small mini-itx case that could hold at least 4 3.5" drives and 1 SSD for a compact Hyper-v server. I compared every mini-itx case on Newegg and this one came out on top in price / features. After receiving it I was happy to see that the materials and build quality are very good. Most of the other mini-itx cases on Newegg that can hold this many drives are physically larger. This case if very compact and surprising very easy to work on. It uses a standard atx power supply and 120 mm fan. Air flow design is simple and effective. Both stock fans run whisper quiet.I'm using this with a ASRock E3C226D2I Mini ITX Server Motherboard, 16 GB RAM and a i5 4570S, 120GB SSD. Idle power is 29 watts. With 10 TB of disk space (2 x 4TB, 1 x 2TB drives) idle power is 42 watts.

Cons: It would be nice if the front USB ports were USB 3.0 insted of 2.0

Reduces power consumption
03/11/2014

Pros: I replaced an Antec power supply with this SeaSonic Gold Certified PS in an existing home server and my idle power consumption dropped by 15 watts. I also swapped out 6 smaller hard drives to two 4TB green drives and cut idle power by another 40 watts.